Defiance
by Stephen Ratliff
Summary: A starship from an alternate reality where the Federation has fallen arrives at Essex while the Enterprise-E is stationed there. On board is an alternate Marrissa.
1. Prologue

Defiance

**Author's Note:**

For years, this story has languished on my hard drive. It does so no longer because quite frankly, someone told me that deserved to be somewhere else. So here it is, my first real attempt at dealing with Trek alternate realities. At the time of this posting, it is not complete. In fact, I suspect this might be a story that goes on for quite some time. My original outline for this story went ten chapters, but by the time I got to chapter four, I'd only gone through a little over one and a half chapters of my plot outline. My plot outline has since expanded. Do not ask me how long this story will be, or when it will be complete. I won't know until the words "The End" appear. Do, however, tell me what you liked, what you didn't, and perhaps were you think it's going.

**Prologue**

The metal debris spun in space as it followed the path dictated by the explosion that had separated it from it's prior occupation. As it spun, light from the nearby red dwarf star, Lalande 21185, revealed it's source, NCC-42295. If you could look up Star Fleet Registries, that would be enough to identify it as part of the_ USS Hood_, an Excelsior Class vessel commissioned in 2355. The debris from the _Hood _wasn't the only sign of the Battle of Lalande 21185. Three dozen starships had met their ends in this system, along with a good dozen of their green blooded enemies.

They had lost. It had been the first significant battle of the war. The Federation had been barely hanging on when Admiral DeSoto had encountered the Romulan Warbirds on their way to take out the remaining bastian of humanity in the Sol system. They'd defeated the Borg, some how. Wolf 359 had taken out a great deal of Star Fleet's Ships of the Line, and more had been lost in the final encounter orbiting Earth. Earth itself had been turned into an ecological disaster that would have taken decades of careful work by a dedicated work force to restore.

That wasn't going to happen. Earth was now subject to Romulan rule. Predator Neral now ruled over what had been the United Federation of Planets. His bold orders after the Borg attack on the Federation, before the ships could be repaired or replaced had quickly placed all the major Federation worlds under the thumb of the Romulans. Star Fleet no longer existed, mostly.

In the dark shadows of Lalande 21185, however, one last Star Fleet Vessel lurks. As her crew beams aboard another piece of salvaged hardware, her stolen Romulan cloaking device comes down briefly, revealing her unusual lines for a Star Fleet Vessel. Her dusky blue hull was a single unit, the warp nacelles brought in tight, her deflector embedded in the rectangularish forward beak. Her registry was visible on the tip, NX-74205, and her name emblazoned on the circular ring embedded on the top of the hull.

_USS Defiance_, her name proclaimed. Fitting perhaps, that this ship, that name, the first and last of her class, would be the last starship of the United Federation of Planets. The last one launched, and the last one remaining. To the scattered remains of humanity, her name would be legend. The tale of her escape, of her survival, of her assistance, of her appearance, would be long remembered, long after her final disappearance.

...

The _Warbird Haakona _under Subcommander Taris had been given the job of tracking down the _USS Defiance_. It was the Haakona's cloaking device that had been stolen. Not that Taris would ever admit that. Especially since he had seen the visuals of the thieves. He was not going to admit that his security was so bad that some teenagers had penetrated it while the ship was undergoing repairs.

It had been a year ago, six weeks after the fall of Vulcan. He would forever curse his orders to repair at the surviving Vulcan Space Central. Two humans and a Vulcan were all that had been necessary to remove that critical piece of equipment. His ship had not been allowed to order a replacement.

The _Haakona _had some success dealing with the _Defiance_. Taris was pretty sure by now that he was dealing with a new Captain. The tactical patterns had changed about five months before. The new Captain had to be younger, a bit more reckless, but also a bit more complex. He figured that they had to be the helmsman from the first three months he'd been chasing the _Defiance_. There was a certain similarity in style that had been lacking in the interim in the ship's movement. Almost a musical, actually.

Taris had learnt as much as he could about the _Defiance_. He knew that it had been an experimental ship, which severely limited the prewar intelligence on the vessel built to defeat the Borg. The Federation had won before it was commissioned. In fact she hadn't been commissioned until right before the Romulan attack on Earth. He knew that her first commander was Commander Benjiman Sisko, who had been promoted to Captain by the Federation's last Admiral before her surrender at the Battle of Andor. Necheyev had turned out to be a well of information after the Federation's surrender, but unfortunately not as much about the _Defiance's _crew as Taris had hoped.

He entered the bridge, just in time to hear the first spotting of the _Defiance _by his warbird in over a month.

...

In another reality, the current commander of the _Defiance _had a science project, a science project on quantum filaments. Her theory was somewhat revolutionary, as it required them to exist across realities. If she'd gone into the field of Stellar Cartography, as she did in yet another reality, her theory might have been expanded to account for what was about to happen in the orbiting debris from the Battle of Lalande 21185.

It had been somewhat ironic that a girl whose theories on quantum filament movements would have her first meeting with the Captain of the _Enterprise _right before the _Enterprise _was hit with one, trapping both in a turbolift. The ironies behind the current situation would dwarf that irony.

The commander of the _Defiance _had the Captain of her _Enterprise _in a similar fashion, only her science project had been on quantum singularities, none of which had ever impacted the Enterprise of this reality. Those quantum singularities were used to power Romulan vessels, like the one that was about to react to the Defiance's appearance like a shark to blood in the water. Quantum singularities like the five that survived the destruction of their host vessels and even now orbited Lalane 21185.

The debris that was once part of the _Hood _rippled, and sparked, hit by something that none could see. If the expert from that other reality, the one that had gone into Stellar Cartography instead of command, had been there, she might have warned her counterpart in this reality. Probably not, though. That expert had remained pretty much the shy blonde who rarely spoke up. That expert would have launched a probe and sat back to watch what happened when a quantum filament was hit by quantum singularities.

That expert probably would have spoke up when the quantum singularity became something more. The commander of the _Defiance_, however, she was a little bit busy to know everything the expert would have found out. She probably was the only version of herself in the multitudes of known realities that was that busy, at least until another cusp hit, and realities split again.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

"Red Alert!" the young girl's voice rang out on the bridge. "Shields up, tell me, Miles, that we have torpedoes?" The young blond girl turned in the command char towards the Irish former Engineer turned Tactical Officer as the ship shook under the impact of the unshielded disrupter hit on the _Defiance's _ablative armor. Her swollen abdomen was the only reason why she hadn't stood.

"Sorry, sir, but we just got them aboard. Jake hasn't had time to recondition them yet," Miles O'Brien said to his commanding officer. "It will be just phasers this time."

"Right," the girl hit a button on her console. "Engineering, I hope we've got full power now, because we're going to need it."

"Engineering, T'La, here. Full power is available. Remember, this time, we've got to drop shields for three seconds before we can cloak. Jake has just arrived."

"Good, Bridge out," the girl now looked forward. "Keiko, evasive pattern Mozart Jupiter, Miles, what do we have?"

"A D'deridex class, Type B, the Haakona, Subcommander Taris commanding," Miles responded, "Shall I return fire?"

"Our old friend Taris," the girl mused, smiling widely. "By all means, Mister O'Brien, by all means ... but hold for a moment. Keiko, take us about, and ready for attack pattern Bach D." As the Defiance swung around towards it's much larger and better armed counter part, the girl stood, with effort. "And I think it's time we finally drop our silence. Open a channel to the _Haakona_."

"On screen," Miles O'Brien responded.

Standing firmly in front of her command chair, as the warbird ceased fire, for the moment, the girl met the eyes of her counterpart for the first time. Her amber orbs stared into his steel blue, her hair held back by a black band, and her uniform perfect. She spoke first.

"I am Captain Marrissa Amber Flores of the Federation Star ship _Defiance_. You have invaded Federation Space, and opened fire on us. Leave."

...

Subcommander Taris recognized the girl on the Bridge of the _Defiance_. She was one of the three who had stolen his cloaking device. He wanted it back. More importantly, he wanted to capture the _Defiance_, not destroy her. Since she had opened communication instead of opening fire, he figured that he had a good chance, even if it ended up to be just teenaged posturing.

"This is Subcommander Taris of the Romulan Warbird _Haakona_. Once this was Federation Space, but no longer. Earth, Vulcan, Andor, Debula, Betazed, all have fallen. You are the last Star Fleet Vessel left. Surrender and I will be merciful. Surrender with the cloaking device you stole from me intact, and I might even let you go after I take over your ship."

Taris did not have to wait for a response. "As long as there is one, there is hope, and the people Federation will continue it's defiance to Romulan rule. Even after we are gone, there will be more. As for your cloaking device, I turned in all the appropriate requisitions." Then in quite passable Romulan, she continued, "Access file five six nine zero delta six four execute." The visual disappeared, replaced with a requisition form for the cloaking device. The girl returned to Federation Standard, and said, "So long, and thanks for the fish! _Defiance _out!"

The Haakona went dark.

...

Marrissa collapsed into the command chair, as the visual feed cut out. "Execute," she ordered. Her crew sprang into action, as the _Defiance _began her high speed run on the darkened _Haakona_. "Single pass, and then cloak and warp us out of here."

"Aye sir," Keiko said from the helm. "Destination?"

"Iota Leonis B," Marrissa decided, "Warp four. Our Iconian cave will do nicely."

As the pass ended, leaving a battered but still repairable Haakona behind, just beginning to bring up it's crashed systems, Miles turned toward Marrissa. "Thanks for the fish?"

...

Quantum filaments are very thin, but they stretch for light years on end. In fact, of the ones that have been spotted, only one end has ever been spotted. Where the other end is, is anyone's guess. The expert has recently advanced the opinion that they aren't even natural. Her colleges aren't quite willing to say that. Actually, they debated it quite a bit. The expert didn't really involve herself in the debate. She was too introverted to do it, really. The expert hadn't had Captain Picard to draw her out of it. In her reality, Riker commanded the _Enterprise_, and he was more interested in helping Jay Gordon than drawing out little Marrissa Flores.

Her reality, however, is not the other one involved. Perhaps if the Commander of the _Defiance _had reversed course, or even went directly into the center of the orbiting quantum singularities she might have been involved. In another reality spun off by the cusp of the Commander of the _Defiance's _orders, perhaps she was. But down the path of the quantum filaments that the _Defiance _was unknowingly following was a different reality.

In that reality she wasn't the commander, nor was she the expert. She wasn't a plain simple tailor there either. No, in that reality, she was the Princess, the Lieutenant, the Chief of Security.

...

Her Royal Highness, Lieutenant Marrissa Amber Picard, Princess of Halifax, Heir to the throne of the Constutional Monarchy of the Federation Member World of Essex, entered the bridge in her dress whites. "All dressed up, I see," Commander William T. Riker said from the center seat.

"Retirement home for Star Fleet Officers," Marrssa explained as she took her post behind the tactical station. "Some of them had some really interesting stories. Especially those about the Cardassian Wars. You might want to visit sometime."

"I'm afraid that I don't have the excuses you do, Lieutenant," Riker replied, as the ready room door opened. "First Officer is a full time job."

"So is Chief of Security, and apparently being heir to a throne," Marrissa said. "At least while we're stationed in the system. Sometimes I wish I had an excuse."

"What did I tell you about excuses, Marrissa?" Captain Jean-Luc Picard asked, as the ready room door closed behind him.

"Avoid them unless absolutely necessary," Marrissa looking up at her adopted father. "You also said I was working too hard. I still say I'm not."

"Number One, have you looked at my daughter's schedule recently?" Picard asked, as he replaced Riker in the center seat.

"Not lately, Captain," Riker said. "I can say that she's been keeping up with her studies. In fact she's a couple months ahead. More so in the Sciences, as usual."

"This morning she woke up at 0430 hours," Picard recited. "She took a 5k jog, probably outlasting a couple less than fit crew members, if history is any indication, around the saucer section, before coming back for a shower. She then put on her dress whites ... in the middle of the quarters ... and beamed down to Essex, where she spent the next two hours visiting retired Star Fleet Officers. Marrissa will be spending the rest of this shift at tactical, before going to challenge two of the new Ensigns in a little saber match. While she waits for dinner time, I'm informed that she'll be practicing her Sabre dance routine, hopefully not in the corridors this time, and closer to Sickbay. After dinner, she'll do her studies, including all her briefings, before collapsing into bed around 2200 hours."

"I have not injured myself practicing that routine in over a month," Marrissa replied insistently, as she initiated the regular in depth scan of the area.

"Notice, Number One, that she didn't deny that she was collapsing into bed," Picard remarked.

...

If the expert had been monitoring the sensor returns, she might have recognized the barely detectable signs of what was coming. Of course that would have been because the expert was an expert. Lieutenant Marrissa Picard wasn't quite up to that level. She dismissed it as random space noise.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

It just so happens that the expert's reality was located on the dimensional continuum of realities, the twelfth dimension as hyper-physicists had assigned it, roughly between the commander of the _Defiance's _reality and that of Lieutenant Marrissa Picard of the _Enterprise's_. There was some slight deviation, but not enough to prevent the last bit of alignment to take place, to prepare for the final event.

The expert was involved in her study, and was about to grasp a quantum filament for the first time. Not that she was going to touch it personally. That would be too hazardous. No, she had a starship with a specially designed and fabricated old fashioned grapple to do the job. Despite her usual shyness, she had gathered enough courage to stand behind the young Ensign who had the job of moving the device in place.

In the Commander's reality, that Ensign was dead. Of course a lot of people who where alive in other realities were dead in her reality. In the Lieutenant's reality, the Ensign was the Lieutenant's best friend, and if you believed the rumors, boy friend. There were not many who didn't believe the rumors. In the Expert's reality, though, the Ensign wasn't really known by the expert. That was about to change.

The grapple slowly went out towards Quantum Filament Delta Eta 74205, inching closer to it and ready to clamp around it. The center of the grapple hit, and it snapped around to draw it tight. It was that little jerk when the grapple hit the filament that aligned the last little bit, just minutes before the impact occurred.

...

Quantum singularities, at least the ones used in Romulan warp engines, are not very big. They were just about the size of a walnut. One Romulan engineer in charge of installing them once said to a newbie that they were wicked fast, and damn near impossible to see, which was quite accurate, before they were installed. Romulan Quantum singularity installers would have made good Seekers, if they were in realities where the magical game of Quidditch was played.

The likelihood of the five surviving quantum singularities impacting each other, then would be considered quite long. That is if it wasn't for the fact that the quantum singularities were charged. Not in the negative or positive fashion though. The expert would tell you that quantum singularity charging was actually a bit more complex, involving up, down, right, left, back, and forward charges, which each singularity actually had three of those charges. Given the particular mix of charges among those singularities, a dance of responses and orbits, ever decaying, had developed. If one of the signularities had a forward charge instead of a back charge, it might have actually become stable, but none did, and the back charge made it worse, as it was particularly in tune with the charge of the quantum filament. Of course there was a reason for that. Forward charged quantum singularities just don't go.

The expert was of the opinion that quantum filaments had at least four charges. She was actually wrong. They had eight. Still she knew more than her fellows in the field, who actually had the idea that there was just two. It so happened that the quantum filament in question was perfectly charged, and with the movement that the expert had caused, it was going to impact a vessel going at warp four.

Timing is everything, they say. It was such with those quantum singularities as well. That slight movement had worked its way through multitudes of realities. If the expert had known, she might not have done it, or at least she would have been more careful. But the expert was young, and well, it would effect her, but not as much as it would effect the crew of the _Defiance_. That ripple perturbed the path of two of the quantum singularities that wouldn't have quite impacted where the other three were set to crash together. In fact if it wasn't for that little touch, there would have been a miss on the part of one of them. But the miss didn't occur.

For the crew of the _Haakona_, which was just beginning to recover from the shut down and damage that the _Defiance _had caused, what was about to happen would be adding insult to injury. Well, injury to most. Tal'Shair officer aboard would have no complaints, but the less said about him the better. He did look a lot better with hair, though.

The explosion came up just as the sensors of the _Haakona _came back on line. The first and only thing that they recorded before they burnt out again was the flash over of particles generated by the collusion. The asymmetrical explosion drove back their repairs, making it another week before they were able to leave Lalande 21185. When the did, they did with a strip of Federation Starship hull having adhered to their own. Fused to the hull was broad proclamation of a ship lost, "_Hood_"

...

There was no warning to the _Defiance_. Just two were at watch on the bridge. Keiko was at the helm, and her husband sat in command. The fourteen-year-old commander slept alone in her quarters, no matter how much she really wanted to be in the arms of the boy who gave her the swollen womb she currently possessed. On the other side of the wall of her quarters was that of her Chief Engineer, whose thoughts also centered on her, though in a bit more graphic way.

The shift was known as the O'Brien watch, as only the three were on duty at the moment. Engineering was mostly down. All that was needed was some person in the room who could shut every thing down if necessary until either Jake or T'La got there, so with great reluctance on this night shift little Molly O'Brien, age seven, sat in a chair in Engineering, studying a manual while her feet swung freely.

In Sickbay, Doctor Galen Quice was seated in his salvaged Lazyboy. His aching bones often made sleep hard, and he tended to cat nap through out the day when he wasn't needed. He was sipping a warm cup of milk, while reading a book. He'd once owned a copy of the book given to him by his student, Doctor Beverly Crusher. She'd gone down with the _Enterprise_. He'd lost the copy, but on a recent stop to help a damaged mining colony, he'd obtained a new copy, and finally began to read it. The Collected Grantville Gazettes were damn fine reading, he though. It was the last thought that he had in the reality where he'd been born.

...

The explosion traveled down the quantum filament, causing it to swing like a long jump rope, propelled by just one turner, the other end seeming to be fixed in some distant unknown point. As distance progressed, it opened up, and more space was clear in the middle of that rotation. Into that space, the Defiance slide, unnoticed. The watch was not tight, and only someone with the reflexes of Data would have been able to spot it and respond in time. In the Commander's reality, Data had been lost at the Battle of Lalande 21185. The Defiance had no one his equal ... then again in all the realities there were very few his like.

The swing sped up, and the Defiance was overtaken by a wave of cronaton and yuridi radiation, a complex very hard to duplicate pattern that in the twenty-seventh century in the expert's reality would be used created the drive for the first practical timeships. For the _Defiance_, the time displacement would be short, but not for the particular mix. All things being equal, the _Defiance _should have emerged in her own reality displaced by sixteen years. All things were not equal. The expert had a clamp on Quantum Filament Delta Eta 74205.

...

The expert's clamp was very well designed. It had a rated strength that would have allowed it to handle the force of a ship going at warp three hitting it without breaking. Unfortunately the force which was about to hit it was quite a bit more. The stress was beginning to mount, as the quantum filament twisted inside the clamp. It began to spin within the clamp, causing a magnetic field to form. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, depending on your point of view, the expert had not used a magnetic catch. If she had, the Defiance would have ended up in a reality where she would have been a teenage prostitute working way towards baby number two outside the Imperial Star Fleet Military Academy in San Francisco. The all male crew of the Battleship _Imperial Domain _would have been quite shocked at the arrival of the tough little ship.

But the expert had a clamp on Quantum Filament Delta Eta 74205, and until it gave way, the _Defiance _was trapped between realities, existing in none, really, her crew stuck in remembrance of their past.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Molly O'Brien happened to be the youngest aboard the Defiance. She'd been aboard when the Defiance had launched, shortly before Earth fell. She'd been five, almost six then. Her sixth birthday had coincided with the fall of Vulcan. She'd forgotten about her seventh birthday. Everyone had forgotten about it. The Defiance was not a ship that did a lot of celebrating. It was a warship, a rescue ship, a survivor.

Her crew was trapped between realities, now. Their was no light, no feeling, no input what so ever to their brains ... except for a strange signal which triggered replays of their memories.

...

Molly O'Brien found herself skipping onto the bridge of the Defiance. She wore a deep red pinafore, a dress that she'd outgrown a long time ago. Her mother quickly pulled her over to her side. "Behave," came her mother's admonishment, as an hand on her shoulder restricted her movement.

Molly looked up, focusing on the viewscreen, which had an view of the ship she was on, focusing on a spinning bottle headed for it. It impacted the baby blue hull of the Defiance, sending a red stain onto the hull as the glass bottle shattered on impact.

The view returned to a forward view, the front opening of the space dock framing the stars. As Molly twisted under her mother's grip, in order to look around the bridge, the tall black human in the center seat, spoke up, his firm voice giving the orders. "Mister Corzine, thrusters ahead full, take us out."

"Aye, sir," the beared helmsman replied. The ship began to move forward, the space dock falling behind her. In the distance, Molly saw the stars ripple. It was the first sign of what was to be the fall of the Federation.

The Federation was already at war, and had already suffered it's loss at the Battle of Lalande 21185, though Molly had not known at the time. For her, it was just a sudden uprooting. Her father would no longer be on the Enterprise, though her mother would be remaining there. Her mother would no longer be a staff biologist on the Enterprise, but her secondary training as a operations officer. Molly was supposed to remaining on the Enterprise. All her things were still there.

Centuries ago, a committee had chosen a particular sound and announcement to be broadcast in the event of invasion. It would automatically be sounded on the bridge of every Federation Vessel in the system. The announcement had been continuously updated, and had been recently used. The Enterprise, however, had not been in system when the Borg had arrived. She also would have had no chance to be on the Bridge of the Enterprise under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

The chosen sound was from an old Country song, know as "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." It was the shrieking sound just as the Devil began his fiddling. In the song, the devil lost. The accompanying announcement would signal the chances of the Federation. "Sector 001, Earth, has been invaded by hostile ... Romulan ... forces. They have opened fire on ... Starbase One ... McKinley Stations ... the Moon ... Jupiter Station ... all civilian craft should depart areas under attack. Issued under orders of Admiral Ross, Star Fleet Operations San Francisco." The sound repeated, and Captain Sisko slammed his hand down on the arm of his chair, cutting it off.

"Shields up, ready phasers and quantum torpedoes," Sisko ordered.

Molly and her mother stood still, shocked, at the back of the bridge. They did not think, did not know, what to do, so they did nothing.

...

The first ship to be destroyed was the USS Richard Petty. Built as a warp speed test bed, it had been unable to evade the incoming fire from the horde of Romulan Warbirds that had decloaked in Earth orbit. The list quickly grew. Endeavor, Hornet, Yorktown, Reagan, Indefatigable, Galaxy, Harrington, Kirk, Maine, Sovereign ... Enterprise.

The flagship of the Federation went down with fire, her saucer coming free as her star drive section burned in unshielded re-entry. Her bridge had actually been ejected intact due to an explosion in waste reclaimation, which left the saucer in an uncontrolled descent. No one could stop it, as it slipped out of orbit and headed down, de-orbiting in an uncontrolled wobble. It's shields snapped up automatically, as the heat rose, allowing it to descend in one piece. The people of the town of Trenton, New Jersey, North America, would had been better off if they hadn't. Over fifty thousand died in the crash on the ground. In the saucer, only one survived.

Up in orbit, the Defiance had arrived, twisting, turning, firing, turning Romulan Warbirds into slag with her overpowered engines keeping her out of the fire, her odd staccato phaser fire finding it's way into the best frequencies on the warbird's shields. She pivoted around the ejected bridge of the Enterprise, and suddenly it was empty.

The battle was being lost though. If the fleet had consisted of Defiance Class vessels, they might have actually won. Too many ships had been caught with their shields down, though, and couldn't have stood that opening fire like the Defiance might have done with it's ablative armor. It didn't help that the Romulans seemed to have a second sense as to what ship hosted the commander. It shouldn't have been a surprise, though. After all the seniority lists and flagships were publically available information. It wasn't until Captain Picard reached the bridge of the Defiance that the chain of command stabilized. By then it was too late.

...

It should not be said that the Defiant was escaping unscathed. Just as Commander Sisko ordered the run to rescue those on the ejected bridge of the Enterprise-E, a small panel to the right of the helm blew out, knocking the helmsman out of his chair, and gouging a rip in the man's head and neck.

Molly felt her mother's grip disappear as her mother's voice rang out. "I've got the helm." Her mother surged forward and took the injured officer's seat. Molly had never seen her mother in the pilot's seat before, her father usually had the helm. She hadn't even known her mother could fly.

From the back of the bridge, a doctor surged toward the injured helmsman, now laid bleeding. He brushed passed Molly, imparting some of his motion on her, until she found herself beside the bleeding helmsman. The doctor looked up at her, and grabbed her hand. "Press hard, here," he ordered. Molly obeyed, but she couldn't keep her eyes on the bloody wound that she was holding together. Instead she focused her eyes on the determined face of the doctor, as he tried to save the life of the helmsman.

It seemed to take a long time for the doctor to repair the wound. Molly kept her eyes focused on the arabic features of the doctor, not the feeling of blood on her hand. Eventually, the doctor pushed Molly's bloody hand away. Molly watched as the helmsman was carried out, still squatted down next to where he had lain. As he reached the door at the rear of the bridge, it opened, revealing Captain Picard. He flattened to the left side as the doctor carried the injured helmsman out.

Captain Picard found the one open station on the bridge, and took a seat, bringing up the fleet status. "Commander Sisko," he said, briefly turning towards the center seat. "I'm assuming command of the fleet, following the loss of the Bismark and Rear Admiral Williams."

"Acknowledged," Sisko replied. "We're not getting ahead at the moment."

"Understood," Picard replied. "Your ship seems to be the only one able to reply with impunity at the moment. We're going to have to use it."

"Romulans launching on planetary targets!" someone announced.

"Three nuclear explosions, in the 150KT range," another reported. "San Francisco, Paris, and New York all destroyed."

"It's time to leave," Sisko stated.

"Agreed," Captain Picard said. "The Defiance will take point. We will swing by Mars to pick up any remaining ships before departing for Vulcan."

...

The memory ended, and Molly slept between realities again. The clamp still held.


End file.
